In his book The Invention of Scotland, the late historian Hugh Trevor-Roper takes on established Scottish traditions such as the tartan and the kilt, calling them "about as authentic as Disneyland." Adam Kirsch of the New York Sun reviews the book.

On a street in Strasbourg, France in the summer of 1518, a woman began a fervent 6-day dance that led to a month-long dancing frenzy by more than 400 people. Modern scholars are still undecided about what caused the "Dancing Plague."